The present disclosure relates to the provision of oxygen for use in wound healing.
The lack of oxygen, i.e. hypoxia, is commonly experienced by people in their extremities as they get older due to poor blood circulation as well as by those with conditions such as diabetes. Studies have also shown below normal, low oxygen tension in the skins of older people. This often leads to poor skin health and an excessive presence of visible conditions such as wrinkles, dryness and lower skin elasticity. Over the years, cosmetic manufacturers have introduced skin formulations with a large variety of ingredients such as emollients, exfoliators, moisturizers etc., to retard these age related effects and improve and maintain skin health. Attacking the problem of low oxygen directly has not been generally practiced.
In addition to the normal decrease in oxygen delivery to the skin which can have beneficial results when reversed, oxygen applied to wounds as, for example, a dressing containing oxygen, can speed healing. The delivery of oxygen to the skin and wounds for common use is a technological challenge, since oxygen is quite reactive and unstable. High concentrations of oxygen could not be provided for home use because of this instability. Oxygen can, however, be provided in the form of a peroxide and a peroxide decomposition catalyst per U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0121101 to Ladizinsky. This publication provides such a treatment for intact skin through the use of a dressing that is applied to an area of the skin. The dressing generally has a rupturable reservoir containing an aqueous hydrogen peroxide composition and a hydrogel layer having a peroxide decomposition catalyst. Unfortunately the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to oxygen is quite rapid and so the dressing has a layer that is impermeable to oxygen on the outside so that the oxygen is held against the skin for the maximum time possible. While this dressing is useful for small areas of the skin, it should be clear that it is unworkable for large areas or irregularly shaped areas of skin.
Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,582 to Devillez proposes the use of hydrogen peroxide in the place of benzoyl peroxide in skin treatment compositions that also contain solvents for hydrogen peroxide. This allows the hydrogen peroxide to stay below a level that will damage the skin and to stay in solution in greater concentrations. A solvent such as dimethyl isosorbide along with water is taught as being effective. No peroxide decomposition catalyst is present. Unfortunately, no data on oxygen concentration or generation are given, nor is the time required for oxygen liberation. While this method appears to be an advance over non-oxygen containing compositions, the lack of data makes it difficult to make objective judgments on the overall effectiveness of this approach. Given the concentrations of peroxide, however, it is doubtful that significant volumes of oxygen were generated.
There is a need for an easy-to-use way of applying oxygen to wounds to accelerate healing. Such a method and/or product should have relatively few components and be intuitive to use, without the need for special dressings or other awkward requirements. A product that may be used in a manner similar to known products would be most readily accepted by the consumer.